Ferrari F2001 F201

[Kingfisher]

I came across this on eBay. I had never heard of the F201 chassis before and did some quick googling. From what I have read, it wasn't popular because racing rules only allow 2WD F1 cars. It had a very short production cycle, and not many people liked it due to the limited gearing options and lack of electronics space. Looking at the chassis, it's pretty close to scale to a normal F1 with the inboard cantilever shocks. I chose to give this underdog car a chance and went all impulse on it. It needs wheels/tires and body mounts from what I can see so far. The motor is loose and it has an ESC in it, along with a Futaba receiver that I won't be using as I married into Spektrum. It came with the instruction manual, and I plan to fully disassemble it and rebuild it.

 

 

 

I don't care much for the paint work, and will be finding another body to fit. Will any Tamiya F1 body fit this chassis?

 

 

 

Compare that front suspension to a 1:1 suspension.

 

Anybody recognize that motor?

 

 

 

What about the ESC?

 

 

I'll update this thread as I rebuild it and bring it back to life.

[Juls1]

The f201 was a great looking chassis, it was however very wide, I’m not certain that any other non f201 body’s fit, f104 specific body’s certainly do not. 

I have the f2001 as my variant of the f201 as well. There single fixed gearing of just a 20T pinion is somewhat unbelievable considering TL01’s the budget racer at the time offered 3 pinion options. The monocoque “style” chassis was quite flexy and 3racing didn’t make anywhere near enough of there carbon fiber hopup chassis’s.

frustratingly the factory shocks didn’t have real pistons, they are plunger style like modern dt03 or cc01 shocks. The alloy shocks are not sold as a set, instead you have to buy the shock body’s and pistons/shafts separately. 

The most frustrating thing I think is the FRP front sway bar. Sitting underneath like some kind of afterthought oops we stuffed it up bodgy fixit job. On My model at least I can’t stop it creeking and it seems to all but delete the suspension all together.

the whole thing really is at odds with standard f1 fair, it’s stance, shape and dimension all being off comparatively.

The electronics are period correct, the gm v4 was a good unit at the time, 14T limit from memory, no reverse unless it’s the v4r model. 

the trinity monster stock motors (27x2) where one of the better racing motors of the time and very popular. 

It is a worthy chassis on any tamiyanuts display/rarely use shelf. I’d love to see Tamiya have another go at this, having learnt from past mistakes.

Juls

[Kingfisher]

2 hours ago, Juls1 said:

The f201 was a great looking chassis, it was however

Juls

Thank you for all of that info. I saw a 3racing carbon chassis on eBay and decided to wait until I got the car to consider it. Now that I have the car, I went back and it's been sold. I'm sure another will eventually pop up. I plan to run it around parking lots, so it'll still be a fun car to drive around considering its faults. 

[TwistedxSlayer]

I was very tempted to buy that one when i saw it on ebay.

[Kingfisher]

36 minutes ago, TwistedxSlayer said:

I was very tempted to buy that one when i saw it on ebay.

I'm glad we didn't get into a bidding war with each other. 

There is this new chassis kit with 2 bodies if you still want one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-NIB-Tamiya-58294-F201-Kit-with-2-Original-Bodies-f1-formula-one/273371253066?hash=item3fa632494a:g:nEoAAOSwLM5bCYp2

[Shodog]

I bought one many years ago.  I lost interest because the gearing was so high making the motor burning hot.  I got a second one from Skottoman with a brushless motor system that runs a lot better with a lot less heat.  Lots of sweet hop ups came out for this chassis but supply was so limited it would be difficult trying to source them now.  There is a guy on eBay selling aluminum wheels that look killer. 

[TwistedxSlayer]

1 hour ago, Kingfisher said:

I'm glad we didn't get into a bidding war with each other. 

There is this new chassis kit with 652 bodies if you still want one:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/RARE-VINTAGE-NIB-Tamiya-58294-F201-Kit-with-2-Original-Bodies-f1-formula-one/273371253066?hash=item3fa632494a:g:nEoAAOSwLM5bCYp2

Wouldnt have been a bidding war. Lol. Id have stuck one bid on it and that would have been it. Lol. Im a lazy bidder.

[Juls1]

7 hours ago, Kingfisher said:

Thank you for all of that info. I saw a 3racing carbon chassis on eBay and decided to wait until I got the car to consider it. Now that I have the car, I went back and it's been sold. I'm sure another will eventually pop up. I plan to run it around parking lots, so it'll still be a fun car to drive around considering its faults. 

Darnit why didn’t you send me the link of that 3racing chassis!  lol

[Kingfisher]

20 hours ago, Juls1 said:

Darnit why didn’t you send me the link of that 3racing chassis!  lol

I'm kicking myself for not getting it when I found it. Here's the link. It all went for $25 USD.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Tamiya-F201-Carbon-fiber-chassis-plate-Wheels-Wing-Parts-Lot-58294-49336-58303-/323428420853?hash=item4b4dd60cf5%3Ag%3AhqAAAOSw01Jbdf7q&nma=true&si=oc%2Bn7P8qC6oJugNVp%2F8%2F%2BDOMlJE%3D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557

[Juls1]

Doesn’t appear to be complete chassis, no top plate or hardware. Maybe it wasn’t such a great deal. 

[Kingfisher]

2 hours ago, Juls1 said:

Doesn’t appear to be complete chassis, no top plate or hardware. Maybe it wasn’t such a great deal. 

How much would you expect to pay for a complete carbon chassis?

[Juls1]

 

36 minutes ago, Kingfisher said:

How much would you expect to pay for a complete carbon chassis?

Complete carbon chassis when new was about $80 USD to buy.

so no idea, never seen one. not even on a car that was for sale, these cars lend themselves to pretty darn good shelf queens. 

[Fabia130vRS]

This chassis nver catched my eye, I had similar gearing in my TT01, 24/52 I believe it was in the TT01, in that time runnin a 17x2 LRP GT2. Just a bit weird, it has 4wd and fixed gearin, would nice to have as a collector, but I like the F103/F104 more.

but I heard it handles well,with 4wd. With the right brushless setup it may o fast also.

[t3garett]

I have a 201 with all hop ups from tamiya and the 3racing carbon chassis. With the 10t brushless with turbo it flies and is a great car ! The 3racing chassis had alu motor mount so you can use different pignons. It s a must have. 

Enjoy your 201 !

[TwistedxSlayer]

12 minutes ago, t3garett said:

I have a 201 with all hop ups from tamiya and the 3racing carbon chassis. With the 10t brushless with turbo it flies and is a great car ! The 3racing chassis had alu motor mount so you can use different pignons. It s a must have. 

Enjoy your 201 !

Pictures!

[t3garett]

[t3garett]

[t3garett]

[t3garett]

[t3garett]

[t3garett]

[Kingfisher]

10 hours ago, t3garett said:

I have a 201 with all hop ups from tamiya and the 3racing carbon chassis. With the 10t brushless with turbo it flies and is a great car ! The 3racing chassis had alu motor mount so you can use different pignons. It s a must have. 

Enjoy your 201 !

Very nice. Thanks for showing the pictures. The color scheme looks great.

[t3garett]

Thanks !

[pininfarina]

I've a couple of these too - a few runners, nibs and the carbon chassis :-)

They are very scale chassis, I wanted to do a 2WD with 4WD braking on it... wondering if I have a center one-way in the opposite direction will it work? Maybe I will make one.. soon.

 

[Kingfisher]

14 hours ago, pininfarina said:

I've a couple of these too - a few runners, nibs and the carbon chassis :-)

They are very scale chassis, I wanted to do a 2WD with 4WD braking on it... wondering if I have a center one-way in the opposite direction will it work? Maybe I will make one.. soon.

 

Very nice. Do the cutouts help air get to the motor or is it just for scale appearance? Looks good either way. 

If you flipped the one-way for braking, would you have 2WD forward and 4WD reverse? That sounds like an interesting idea.